Madoka Magica - Episode 03 Discussion / Poll

[Sol Falling]

Originally Posted by HandofFate

just finished episode 3.

and man...

Mami got punked.

Kind of hot how she became dinner though.

Anyway, expected it to get this kind of seriously soon or later.

Also, that bastard Kyibei is probably behind everything.

lol, nice, someone else actually felt the same as me. I too found it delightfully arousing watching Mami dangle from the jaws of a demented clownworm.

This series isn't 'dark' yet, hardly approaches it in my opinion. I'd be glad if it keeps up this way, IMO pointless death and misery is just stupid.

[Seihai]

Eh, Mami's death wasn't pointless. And compared to other MG shows, it's dark.

[Sol Falling]

That was my point. Mami's death fits thematically into the story, which seems clearly to me to have something to say about the bright side of life. "Dark for a Magical Girl show" doesn't mean much to me as I don't typically watch them, but I don't come to Shinbo for sick and depressive stuff; instead, that would be brilliant stylisms/artistic creativity combined with either (occasionally perverted) humour or human drama. Thus far, Puella Magi has been providing the latter just about perfectly while approaching nowhere near the darkness of other serious works out there.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by Sol Falling

but I don't come to Shinbo for sick and depressive stuff

But people come to Urobuchi for sick and depressive stuff

Which is why people suspect Mami's death is just the tip of the iceberg

[shinku no kage]

I got into this series because everyone wouldnt stop talking about this episode....

People would just assume that nothing like that will happen just because they believed Mami was in the "main cast". Just cuz a character is in all the advertisements or in the OP, ED doesnt mean that nothing will happen to them throughout the series...we should know that by now.

But I do like the series overall thus far, really love the unique art style when battling the witches.

...though it makes you think, where's the line that seperates magical girls from witches? Isnt it just "age"? LOL, magical girls these days...they just have to blow $#!t up...orz

[MrSandman]

Hey all, just a sad fool here with my 2 cents. ;_;

Spoiler for Madoka Magica Epsode 3:

Dispite all my efforts to go into this anime without being spoiled in advance, I alas went into this one knowing what was going to happen at the end. Well...least I can skip the surprised phase and move right into depression!

Ahh....Tomoe Mami.........Your winking face while firing a car sized gun will not be forgotten. Seems anime has it out for me when it comes to killing off my favorite characters.....

In theme of todays acid trip is........Oh who am I trying to fool. I'd have better luck picking apart the plot to FLCL then understanding what the hell these barrior worlds are suppose to be.

Honestly if I hadn't heard what was gonna to happen, by the time they were planning to have cake I would have probibly concluded that "someone" was about to die. Watching so many similar animes makes me suspicous when things are getting too happy. Still was a pretty grusome death considering the "candyland" scene they were in. (Let out a chuckle earlier when they ran through the "Chocolate flavor" door).

This witch was a moderate improvement over the first in looks, especially in it's "I'm gonna eat ya" form.

A 8/10 episode, which I'd rank higher if not for how sad it was. ;_;

"Thats what you get for becoming a Puella Magi"

[kaigan]

i've been revisiting mami too, can't get enough of her fighting theme.

btw, i don't know if this was pointed out before but i noticed a continuity error. after homu-chan destroyed charlotte, homu changed into her school uniform. she warned the girls about becoming pm, changes to wide-shot, then close-up homura in pm attire again. or it was a plot device that has some relevance later on?

this just struck me since i'm seeing screencaps regarding minor differences in ep10 tv and nico stream broadcast.

Spoiler for scene in question:

[Liddo-kun]

Spoiler for So sad!:

Just when Mami became happy, she dies. I've heard of a death going to happen later on in this series, but I didn't expect it to be this early...

A witch possess a hospital, I was a bit expecting the form of the witch to be something hospital related. Instead there's this kid's meal area with lots of candy. Witches truly are weird, including their names which are hard to read.

I also wonder if Homura's power is to make bombs? Did she put a bomb in each platform she stepped on? Going to watch the next episodes to find out. Even a witch with multiple lives can't escape multiple explosions for long.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by kaigan

i've been revisiting mami too, can't get enough of her fighting theme.

Definitely agree with you here.

Mami's theme is probably my favorite piece of BGM from this anime. Mind you, there's a few different pieces of BGM in this anime that I like a lot, but Mami's theme is probably my personal fave of them all.

[MrSandman]

Oh.....thank god it's not just me then. Started feeling ackward after I watched that scene for the 50th time just for the music. ^_^;

Originally Posted by Liddo-kun

Spoiler for So sad!:

Just when Mami became happy, she dies. I've heard of a death going to happen later on in this series, but I didn't expect it to be this early...

A witch possess a hospital, I was a bit expecting the form of the witch to be something hospital related. Instead there's this kid's meal area with lots of candy. Witches truly are weird, including their names which are hard to read.

I also wonder if Homura's power is to make bombs? Did she put a bomb in each platform she stepped on? Going to watch the next episodes to find out. Even a witch with multiple lives can't escape multiple explosions for long.

Spoiler for Spoilerz ahoy:

Well, I've read somewhere that the witches Maze theme from this epiode might have come from the idea that the witch may have origionally been someone suffering from a cancer, a wasting disease or some some sort of eating disorder. Since the maze seems modeled on the witches former mind, it would explain the hospital/food theme some.

[CrimsonSunshine]

I just finished this episode! (Yes, I'm a little behind. This is my first time watching an ongoing anime...) This anime is already so entertaining! Mami was such a great character, it's a shame to see her go so soon...

Excuse me for the short post, I'm not sure what to say, really. I'm in awe.
A magical girl's anime has never been so nicely done! I ranked this episode a perfect 10.
Not that I won't miss Mami, though. o_o;

[Alcindor]

that was sudden like wth dat was 2 early

[Dark Wing]

Originally Posted by Alcindor

that was sudden like wth dat was 2 early

Yea everyone gets that same reaction the first time they see this episode...

[Hooves]

Which is probably why Madoka Magica appealed to so many

[Animexcel]

So has anyone discussed what this blob thing was? Homura seemed to have caught it. Heaven forbid it's Mami's chewed up body. >_>

[Rayneing]

I believe the storyboards actually claim that to be a chunk of Charlotte's body, not Mami. I can't read Japanese to verify that for myself though.

Spoiler for Urobuchi's Twitter:

[Jimmy C]

The katakana does appear to be "ma ji o" rather than "ma mi"

[Dark Wing]

Originally Posted by Animexcel

So has anyone discussed what this blob thing was? Homura seemed to have caught it. Heaven forbid it's Mami's chewed up body. >_>

Yea it is....

[Akashin]

The idea of that blob being Mami is disturbing on so very many levels. I don't care what the storyboard says; for the sake of my peace of mind, I'm going to tell myself that that's a piece of Charlotte.

Lalalalalalala~!

[Kaioshin Sama]

I had nothing else going on tonight so I decided to throw on some episodes of this.

So this series is going to be all serious business then. We find out this episode that being a magical girl is actually dangerous in this show cause weird snowman face monsters can eat you. Apparently Madoka has a lot of potential as a Magical Girl, but have they ever stated why that's the case or did I miss a bit of dialogue or did I miss something? Perhaps it's because some of the imagery in this show can be really distracting at times, which is a bit of a problem I'm running into in this show.

The weird world that the witches seem to live in is just so different from the rest of the artstyle in the show that I have a hard time accepting it as part of the universe of this show and it kind of detaches me from what's going on with all the characters. That's a bit of a problem cause there's a lot of dramatic dialogue (not the most eloquent stuff either given the severity of the speeches being made) in this episode and it's kind of hard to absorb it when the source of the trouble is giant photorealistic cookies in the background and weird snowman face monsters. It's kind of like a conflict of goals almost between the art direction and the plotting and character development.

Here's an analogy to try to clear up what I'm getting at here. It's like when you have CGI in a movie with live actors (say Star Wars Episode 1) and you see them trying to make the real interact with the artificial, but a part of your brain knows when something is not real and it takes you out of what's going on cause it registers as not real or hard to accept. That's the feeling that everything that goes on in the Witches world gives me because of the severe contrast in art style.

I still like Madoka as a character (some would probably think of her as a Mary Sue, but I don't know, her personality is pretty endearing) in this which is why I'm going to continue to follow it, but I'm not sure I'm liking the this abrupt turn for the overly violent yet. Not so much the turn itself, but how it was handled and how some of the elements clash with each other in the leadup to the climax with Mami's apparent death. I know that's weird to say for someone who enjoyed Higurashi and how that went from being sugary to a violent horror series (not that this was ever really overly sugary, but it did get really violent this episode when before it had just been cartoonish of the kind that is more the norm for magical girl fare), but that was more of a gradual change in tone whereas this feels like the tone of the show and overall goal got changed up right in the middle of production or something and they didn't have enough time to up the style of the dialogue to suit the change in tone so they just worked in some catty barbs between Mami and Akemi. Am I expecting too much in the dialogue here for a more dramatic take on the magical girl tone? I can't really answer that myself which is why I'm moving onto the next episode right away.

As for now, I like the characters and their storylines so far (even if Mami and Sayaka's wish storylines are a little tropeish in featuring the oft seen tragic storylines the car crash and the sick kid, not that I can consider it a detriment, but I am keenly aware of it), but there's just a lot of conflictings elements in this show for me to really get into any of it right now and I hope that clears up soon cause I've got about another 9 episodes of Madoka Magica to get through.